Page 54 of Justice for Daesha

Instead, he stepped through the back door of the office and heard a voice yell, “Is that you, Fletcher?”

Uh-oh. It was Mack, and his tone didn’t sound too friendly. “Yeah.”

“In my office. Now.”

When he jetted down the hallway, he found Mack at his desk, a blank look on his face. Mack was the master of poker faces, and he was wearing his best one at that moment. “Yeah?”

“Close the door and sit down.” There was no doubt in his mind?he was getting his ass reamed. Once he was seated, Mack planted his elbows on the desk and leaned in. “Would you like to explain to me why I got a call from the AG this morning telling me to have you back off SenatorKelso?”

“I’ve wanted to talk to you about that. Speaking of which, how’s your mom?”

There was a weariness in Mack’s face that Amos had never seen before. “Not a broken hip. A cracked femur. She’s not supposed to be up more than four hours a day, so my sister’s having to take care of her.”

“Well, that’s good. At least it wasn’t a broken hip and there was no surgery, right?”

“True. But she’s still down for the count. Now, back to my question.”

“Okay. So I was looking at that picture, and?”

“Have you actually talked to SenatorKelso?”

Amos was surprised. “No. Did he say I had?”

“It was implied.”

“Uh-huh. Sounds about right. So, again, I was looking at that picture of the ring. We figured out?”

“We?”

“Jesse, Alex, and I. Remember, they were looking the files over?”

“Oh, yeah. Continue.”

“We figured out a ring had been taken off the vic’s body. I went to Daesha’s and we searched until we found a picture taken close to the time of the murder, and there was a ring on her finger. I kept looking at it until I figured it out, with Eric’s help. It was a ring that incorporated all three logos of the Kelso brothers’ businesses.”

“And had it been recovered in her personal effects?”

“No. That means whoever took it off kept it. So I went to talk to all three of the Kelso brothers about it at their places of business. Then I overheard a conversation each had on the phone with one of the others, and they all were panicking. And then I overheard a conversation between one of them and somebody else in person, and?”

“Youoverheardthese conversations? Please tell me I’m not going to be rip-roarin’ pissed off by what that means.”

“Uh, let’s just say none of that would be admissible in court and leave it at that.” That was a pretty good way to put it, he thought.

“Uh-huh. I don’t want to know, do I?” Amos shook his head. “Continue.”

“Anyway, in the other convo the brother talking asked the person if they really wanted one of the boys to take the rap for what they’d done, and then said, ‘After all, we’re your sons.’ So?”

Mack held up a palm. “But you haven’t actually talked to the senator?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t see where he’s got a beef with us. But what’s the significance of this ring? Why would somebody kill her to take it?”

“I think it symbolizes a problem, one that would take down the senator.” Mack’s eyebrows dipped toward the bridge of his nose and he waited. “I think the brothers were having an affair with Dorinda. I think their dad knew if it came out, he’d lose the next election, so he wanted it hidden. I think he went over there to talk to her, reason with her, ask her to cut it out, and they got into an argument. It escalated, he killed her, and he took the ring to protect himself. He didn’t go over there to kill her, but after it happened, well, there had to be measures taken.”

“Yeah, I can see why… Wait. You said the ring incorporated all three logos from their businesses?” Amos nodded. “So each of them knew about her affair with the other?”

How to put it? There was no delicate way. “They knew about it because they were there.” The vacant look in Mack’s eyes told Amos he didn’t understand. “They were there. They were all there. Together. At the same time.”

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